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人情紙風船 (Humanity and Paper Balloons)

Director: Sadao Yamanaka
Year: 1937
Run-time: 1 hr 25 min

- This is actually the third of Yamanaka's films to appear on the list, but the only one that seems to have gotten any physical release outside of Japan.  That's really unfortunate - this film has an incredibly forward-thinking style, and I would really love to see the others.  Despite being set in feudal Japan, with samurais, this has almost nothing in common with Kurosawa.  Instead it's a story of class-based oppression, that left me drawing comparisons to Altman in the way that it weaves between characters.  The tragedy really hits hard by the end.  So glad the list is here to introduce me to films like this that I would otherwise never encounter.
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